Getting James
by xoscribeox
Summary: Lily Evans has a secret. Just as she's about to come clean, something happens to make everything go wrong. She must set things right, and there's only one person who can help her...
1. True Colors

**This chapter takes place while Lily and the Marauders are in their fifth year. The part at the very end is the exact part from "Order of the Phoenix" only in Lily's point of view. Enjoy!**

**I, obviously, do not own anything from the books, as I am not JK Rowling.**

**___________________________________________________________________________**

"Not this again."

I picked up the flowers that had been placed on my desk in the Transfiguration classroom and put them on the floor under the table in the hopes that no one would see them.

_When will he give this up? I am never going to go out with him! He is an arrogant, bigheaded, jerk!_

…_A really cute arrogant, bigheaded, jerk._

_NO! _I said to myself, internally. _Pull yourself together Lily! James Potter is nothing more than the scum on your shoes! Don't give him the satisfaction of even thinking about him!_

But I _couldn't_ stop thinking about him, not when he came into class and winked at me as he sat down in the chair in right front of mine, not even when Professor McGonagall began to teach the lesson, and especially not as James ran his fingers through his amazing jet black hair.

By the time class was over, I had "Mrs. Lily Potter" drawn across my parchment about a hundred times. I was completely pathetic.

As I walked toward the Gryffindor Common Room, clutching the flowers from James in my left hand, I realized, with a sinking feeling, that no matter how many times I shot him down, or told him off, or tried to tell myself that I didn't like him, my feelings for him were not going to go away: I could no longer deny to myself that I was totally in love with James Potter.

I walked toward the Fat Lady, and was about to say the password when she pointed to the flowers in my hand.

"Mr. Potter sent you flowers again?"

I cringed and said "yes." Even the portraits knew that he wouldn't leave me alone!

I gave the Fat Lady the password (Dragon Pox), and walked through the portrait hole, all the way up to the girl's dormitory. When I entered the room I saw that it was almost completely empty, except one of my best friends, Mary.

"James sent you flowers again?" She asked, eyeing the flowers that were still in my hand.

"Yes," I sighed, dropping everything I had been carrying down on my bed, and then I sat down. "He will never give up, Mary. He is going to keep bugging me for the rest of my life!"

Mary rolled her eyes. "I don't understand why you don't just go out with him. He obviously likes you, plus he's totally cute, and smart, and funny, and he's a really good Quidditch player!"

"I can't, Mary. I just can't."

"Well I can," she said, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.

"Don't you dare! If you go out with him I will never speak to you again."

"Okay, okay," she said, holding her hands up like people do in the movies when confronted by a police officer.

She may have been one of my best friends, but Mary didn't know that I had a thing for James. I'd never told her; I'd never told anyone. So when I snapped at her, she thought it was because I hated James, not because the thought of James with someone else broke my heart into a million little pieces.

I got up off my bed and made my way toward the door.

"I have to go now, Mary, I told Severus that I'd meet up with him during break to study for O.W.L.s."

"Ugh, why do you hang out with him?"

"You don't understand," I said quietly, my hand resting on the handle of the door. "You don't know him like I do. He's not like you think he is."

And with that, I left the room.

________________________________________________________________________

"Let's take a break," I told Severus, closing the Defense Against the Dark Arts book in my hands.

"I saw that James Potter left you flowers again," he said quickly, as if he had been getting up the courage to say this to me the entire time we had spent together. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, trying to think of a response to give him.

"I told you that he fancies you," he said, saving me the effort.

"I _know _he fancies me! It's not a big deal, Sev. I really don't understand why you hate him so much. Yes, he is a bigheaded prat," I said, in order to make the look of disbelief on my best friend's face disappear, "but he's harmless, really, Sev!"

"_Harmless? _Please! He's an ass; he's completely full of himself. How can you say that he's not that bad? What, do you fancy him too?"

Here it is, clear as the sky overhead, the reason that I could never date James Potter. How could I date someone that my best friend hates? And even if I could have gotten Severus to change his mind about James, would I have been able to get James to change his mind about Sev? No, I was better off leaving things the way they were, lest I lose everything.

"You know I don't fancy him, Sev, we've been through this before. I don't want to talk about this anymore. Let's keep studying, O.W.L.s are a week away."

________________________________________________________________________

A week later, after our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., I sat with a few of my friends at the edge of the Black Lake. Our shoes were off and our feet were dangling in the lake; the cool water felt good on that hot day.

"How do you think you did on the exam?" Mary asked me as she mindlessly kicked her feet in the water.

"I think I did all right."

"I messed up on the question on the five ways to identify a Werewolf, I think."

We continued to chat about the Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., and about the Transfiguration O.W.L. the following day. Every once in a while I would look over to the tree where James and his friends were sitting. James was showing off, catching and releasing a Snitch for the amusement of his friend Peter. He was such a prat.

…But he was _my _prat.

I stopped admiring James for a while to chat with my friends. It was such a beautiful day outside, it was so relaxing to be out under the sun on a day like that.

Soon, though, my relaxation was disturbed by a commotion behind me.

I turned around.

"_Scourgify." _James said, pointing his wand at Severus.

I felt anger boil up inside of me. Why couldn't he just leave poor Sev alone?

I got up and walked over to where James was standing with his best friend, Sirius Black.

"Leave him ALONE."

James looked at me, and his hand sprang to his hair, rumpling it up so it wouldn't be _too _neat.

"All right, Evans?" Normally my heart would have fluttered when he said my name, but not today.

"Leave him alone," I repeated, "What's he done to you?"

"Well it's more the fact that he _exists _if you know what I mean…"

The others around me laughed, but I reached my boiling point. He was torturing Sev, publicly humiliating my best friend, just because he could. In this moment I hated James, I couldn't understand what I had ever seen in him.

"You think you're funny, but you're just an arrogant, bullying, toerag, Potter. Leave him _alone._"

"I will if you go out with me, Evans. Go on… go out with me, and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing (well actually I could, because James said things like that to me all the time). Not only was he bullying my best friend, he was also bribing me, and lying to my face. Did he really think that I believed he would stop tormenting Sev if I went out with him? It was then that the illusion truly shattered. I would never go out with James Potter. I would never so much as look his way again.

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you or the Giant Squid."

"Bad luck, Prongs," Sirius said to James.

As I fought the urge to slap Sirius across the face, Sev reached his wand and pointed it at James.

"OY!" Sirius yelled. There was a flash of light, and a gash appeared on James' face. With another flash of light, Sev was hanging upside down and his pants had fallen, revealing his graying underpants.

The hilarity of the situation finally dawned on me, and I struggled not to join in as my peers laughed.

I quickly composed myself and said "let him down," to James.

"Certainly," James said. "_Locomotor Mortis._"

Severus' body fell to the ground, completely rigid.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE," I yelled, and I pulled out my wand.

"Ah! Evans," James said, looking wary, "don't make me hex you."

"Take the curse off him, then." James, still eyeing my wand, complied.

"There you go," James said to Sev, "you're lucky Evans was here Snivellus-"

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her."

I froze. It was as if time itself had stopped. I couldn't believe it. Severus, my best friend. We'd been friends for years and now, now of all times, he does this. Had he always felt this way? Had he always called me a Mudblood behind my back?

I hid my emotions about Sev's betrayal, and addressed him coldly.

"Fine, I won't bother in the future," I said. "And I'd wash my pants if I were you _Snivellus," _I added, adopting the name that James and Sirius liked to call him, further distancing myself from my former friend.

Apologize to Evans!" James yelled at Severus.

Again emotion filled me. Not only had I lost my best friend, but I had discovered the true colors of the one who I thought I had loved. This was too much for me.

"I don't want _you_ to make him apologize! You're as bad as he is…"

"What?" asked James, looking highly offended. "I'd NEVER call you a- you-know-what!"

I rounded on him, once again letting my anger boil over.

"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can- I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK!"

Without waiting for a response I turned on my heel and walked toward the castle, facing away from James and Severus so they would not notice that tears were spilling out of my eyes.

"Evans. Hey, EVANS!" James yelled from behind me.

But I didn't look back.

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**Hope you liked it! I'm not sure when I'll be posting the next chapter; I want to space it out because I've only got the first four written so far. It won't be too long though. Any reviews would be much appreciated! **


	2. Two Years Later

**Here's chapter two! Hope you like it!**

**As always, all the characters and such belong to JK Rowling.**

Two Years Later

"Bye Tuney," I say to my sister, of whom I've been trying to gain approval for years.

"Bye," she says shortly, her eyes not meeting mine.

_I give up, _I decide, and I go say my goodbyes to my parents.

I look around the platform, and see families saying goodbye, friends meeting up with each other and exchanging stories of the summer holiday, little kids looking up at the big red train with fear in their eyes.

And then I see him…

"Hey!" says an excited voice behind me. I turn around and put a false smile on my face.

"Hey Mary," I say, my mind still on the face I just saw. "How was your summer?"

"Same old, same old. How about you?"

"Uneventful."

"Well let's go get a compartment before they all fill."

After a last goodbye to my parents I follow Mary to the scarlet train, and we try to find a compartment.

As I walk, I stop paying attention to my surroundings. Instead I'm thinking; I'm thinking of my sister, impenetrable in her disapproval of me; I'm thinking of my last year at Hogwarts; I'm thinking of the face I saw on the platform…

"OW!" I exclaim as I feel someone bump into me, wiping my previous thoughts from my mind.

"Watch where you're going, Evans," says James Potter, his face broken in a wide grin as he elbows Sirius, who is standing right beside him.

"Right, sorry," I say. I can't decide whether to say something nasty to him or to just ignore him completely; instead I end up stupidly standing in front of him with my mouth hanging open.

"So, uh, how was your holiday?" he asks me, filling the awkward silence.

"It was fine. How about yours?"

"It was great. So, I heard you made Head Girl! Congratulations!"

"Yeah, I did, thanks."

"Guess who made Head Boy?"

"Remus?" I respond, referring to one of James and Sirius' friends, who had been a prefect with me since our fifth year.

"No, I did!" James tells me with fake nonchalance, while puffing his chest out importantly. Sirius thumps James on the back, with obvious pride for his best friend.

I feel the urge to laugh, but I hold it in.

"But how can that be? You're not a prefect!"

James' smile falters. "I got a note telling me I was Head Boy with my Hogwarts letter. It was signed by Dumbledore!" He says this quickly, trying to convince me of the validity of his statement. "It wasn't a mistake!"

"I'm not saying it was. It's just odd that Dumbledore would choose someone who isn't a prefect for Head Boy, that's all. Anyway, congratulations to you as well."

"Thanks," he says, then adds, "I guess we'll be working together rather closely this year, won't we?"

"I suppose so," I respond, not even bothering to address James' implications. "I'll see you guys later, okay?"

"See you, Evans!" James calls after me as I walk away. I don't acknowledge him, and as I walk away I hear Sirius say, "Way to go man, you had an entire conversation with her!" and I distinctly hear a sound from behind me that can only be Sirius giving James a high five.

I shake my head. _Another year at Hogwarts._

________________________________________________________________________

"When is this going to end?" I whisper to Mary. "I'm starving!"

My stomach growls as Professor McGonagall yells out "Randall, Terrence" and I have to push on my stomach in order to make it inaudible to my peers.

Finally, _finally, _after ten more minutes of sitting at the Gryffindor table trying not to think about how hungry I am, the Sorting ends. Professor Dumbledore makes a brief statement, and, much to my delight, food appears on the table.

I put as much food as I possibly can on my plate, even though I know I won't be able to eat it all. Without pausing for even a second I shove a piece of chicken into my mouth, and groan with delight.

Mary shoots me a look. "You were really that hungry?"

"_Yes,_" I respond. Between the Prefect meeting and chatting with my friends about the holiday, I hadn't found any time to get anything off of the trolley.

I continue to eat, and when I begin to feel a little less ravenous I eat more slowly, instead of shoving food into my mouth like a pig.

Mary points at someone down the table and says, "He will never give up, will he?"

I look over to where she's pointing only to see James Potter (who else?) staring at me. When he sees me look over, he begins waving at me like an idiot, knocking over a glass of pumpkin juice that had been sitting right in front of him.

As James wipes up the spilled pumpkin juice and Sirius, who is, naturally, sitting right beside his best friend, roars with laughter, I turn back to face Mary with a groan.

"He's hopeless," is what I say on the outside. What I think on the inside is, _Has he gotten a haircut? He looks good…_

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When the feast ends, though I am groggy and longing for my old bed in the Girl's Dormitory of Gryffindor Tower, I am instructed to ensure that the Prefects take the First Years to their new Common Rooms, and then I am to make my way to Professor Dumbledore's office to have a meeting with him and James about our duties as Head Boy and Girl.

When all the First Years are safely following the Prefects out of the Great Hall, I attempt make my way out of the Hall as well. However, all of the older students have decided at this time to exit the Great Hall as well, making my own exit very difficult. As I stand in the middle of a throng of pushing and shoving students, wondering why on Earth I didn't just hang back and wait until they had all gone ahead, I feel a hand seize my arm.

"Lily."

I look at the hand gripping my arm, and then look up at the face of the person the hand belongs to. The face of the person I saw on the platform…

"Let go of me, Snape."

"C'mon," my former friend says to me, "let's just go somewhere and talk, Lily."

I shoot Snape a hard look. "I've told you time and time again. You've picked your path, and I've picked mine. I don't want anything to do with you anymore. Just let go of me."

"Lily, please…"

"Let her go."

Snape releases his vice-like grip on my arm. I look over to my rescuer, although I already know who it is; I would know that voice anywhere.

"Get out of here, Potter," Snape says with a snarl.

"Evans said she doesn't want anything to do with you, Snivellus. Leave her alone."

"I can fight my own battles, Potter," I snap, though I am rather glad that he's helped to get me out of this less-than-desirable situation.

James doesn't look at all bothered by my dismissal. Instead he says, "I'll see you upstairs, then," with a slight smile, and winks at me as the pushes his way around another student. I feel my face redden.

I look at Snape, who is staring at me, his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"Close your mouth, Snape, lest a bug flies into it," I say coldly, trying to push my way past him in order to get into the Entrance Hall.

"You fancy him don't you? Don't try to deny it, I saw your face; you went all red when he winked at you!" Snape says from behind me.

I turn around slowly, and carefully respond, "who I fancy and who I don't fancy is none of your business."

I turn away from Snape, and don't look back.

________________________________________________________________________

"You look like you're about to fall over," James says to me with a smile on his face.

We're walking together to Gryffindor Tower after our meeting with Dumbledore, and as James pointed out, I'm so tired that I'm about to collapse on the floor.

"I'm _exhausted._"

"You look it," he says, running his fingers through his hair. When he does, his scent stirs in the air; a musky, amber scent. It smells good.

_What are you doing, smelling James Potter? _I ask myself. _Keep it together Lily! Not only is that extremely creepy, but it's JAMES POTTER. Honestly._

"So I heard that you've been made Quidditch captain, as well," I say to James, trying to distract myself from his amazingly alluring scent. He doesn't verbally respond, instead he stands up a bit taller and nods his head. "Wow, Quidditch captain _and _Head Boy. That sure is a lot of responsibility."

"I think I can handle it," James says, smiling. "Don't think you'll get rid of me so easily, Evans."

It was worth a shot.

Wordlessly, we make our way toward Gryffindor Tower. James gives the Fat Lady the password, and we walk through the portrait hole.

_Home, _I think happily as I walk into the cozy Gryffindor Common Room. I look at James, and it by the look on his face it seems as if he is thinking about the same thing as I am.

It comes time for James and I to part as we walk toward the staircases that lead to the Boy's and Girl's Dormitories.

"Potter," I say politely.

"'Night, Evans," he responds, yawning.

I begin to walk up the stairs, and when I'm halfway up, I turn around to see James still watching me. He blushes, smiles at me, and then walks up the stairs and into his Dormitory.

**Thanks for reading! I hope you guys would take the time to review: I'd really appreciate it!**

**I should be putting chapter three up sometime next week, but maybe I'll do it sooner…**


	3. What I Want

**Here you go, the next chapter, sooner than I was planning on putting it up! Hope you like it!**

**I do not own anything that you recognize. **

**________________________________________________________________________**

I can't sleep.I toss and turn, toss and turn, but I can't get James Potter out of my mind. His smile, him waving at me, his new haircut, him rescuing me from Severus, his musky scent filling the air as he ran his fingers through his hair...I groan and punch my pillow in frustration.I have once again succumbed to the charm and good looks of James Potter, and I hate him for being so annoyingly appealing!He seems...different this year, though. He's toned down the arrogance a bit and he seems more mature and responsible; he (surprisingly) didn't crack even one joke during the head meeting, but instead listened to Dumbledore intently....But I don't _want_ to like him!I groan again and roll over onto my I become so consumed in frustration at myself that I drift off to sleep.________________________________________________________________________

"Evans." My heart skips a beat, and I groan at myself._Stop liking him_! I yell at myself internally."Potter," I respond, doing my best to hide the internal conflict I am currently undergoing as James sits down next to me at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. I groan again. How can I stop thinking about someone if they don't leave me alone?James situates himself and grabs a piece of toast.I look at him expectantly."What?" he asks me, his mouth full of food."I assume that there's a reason that you sat down next to me. What is it?"James looks at me, grinning. "I'm hungry and you're sitting next to the toast. Don't read too much into things, Evans."I roll my eyes and grumble, "there's more toast at the other end of the table."Mary, who is sitting across from James and I, looks at James with disgust. "If you feel the need to sit with us, Potter, then at least chew with your mouth shut. We don't need to see all that."James looks at her, stunned, and slowly shuts his is such a fantastic best shakes his head a bit, as if to shake Mary's retort away from him. When he finally re-composes himself, he turns to me and says with fake nonchalance, "so, Evans, are you coming to Quidditch tryouts this Saturday?""I'm not trying out for the team," I say, even though I know that's not what he meant."Yeah, but you can come watch."I sigh as Mary bursts into laughter across from me, and James watches me expectantly."I don't think so, Potter." James' hopeful face falls, and I feel a little bad for letting him down.

"Hey, Prongs, I wondered where you'd got to."

"Morning, Padfoot," James says to Sirius as he sits down next to Mary. Peter, a friend of James' and Sirius', who tends to follow the two troublemakers around like a lost puppy, sits down beside Sirius wordlessly.

"Evans," Sirius greets me. "And the lovely Miss. MacDonald, of course," he says to Mary, whose face turns a bright shade of red, "how are you ladies this morning?"

"We were a whole lot better before you showed up," I mutter under my breath.

"_Not _a morning person then," Sirius says to James, who laughs.

The boys begin to eat, stuffing food in their mouths so quickly that it's almost as if they're inhaling it. I stare at them all in disbelief; how is it possible that anyone can be this hungry?

"Are you going to eat that?" James asks me, reaching towards the bacon on my plate without even waiting for my response.

"Oh, no you don't," I say, and I slap James' hand away from my plate.

…_Oh my God! I touched his hand!_

_WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?_

I take deep breaths to calm myself down.

James, unaware of the war that is being waged inside of me, says, "Wow, Evans, you've got great reflexes. Are you sure you don't want to try out for Seeker?"

As I open my mouth to retort, Professor McGonagall passes us our schedules.

"Double Potions with the Slytherins first thing," Sirius says darkly.

Together James, Sirius, Peter, Mary and I begin to walk toward the dungeons. Remus, a nice boy who always looks shabby and unkempt, meets up with us along the way.

We enter the dungeon and sit down. Professor Slughorn instructs us to get into pairs and begin to brew up a cauldron of Felix Felicis. I instantly turn to Mary, assuming that we would be partners, but someone had gotten there before me.

"What do you say, MacDonald?" Sirius asks Mary. Mary blushes and nods her head.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I look around the room, trying to find someone to be partners with, and it seems as if there is only one person, besides me, left partner-less.

"Looks like we're together, then, Evans."

I hate my life. Seriously.

As James passes by Sirius to get to me, I hear him say, "Thanks, Padfoot."

"Anytime, Prongs."

Of course James would set it up so that we'd be partners. Of course.

I set up my cauldron and light a fire beneath it as James gets the ingredients for the potion from the store cupboard. For the first few minutes, we work together without talking, punctuating the silence only to discuss what we needed to do next for the potion. I must say, this surprises me. Usually, James would've asked me to go out with him about five times by now. Maybe he really has matured during the holiday…

"It looks like someone is less than happy about our partnership," James says to me eventually, pointing in the direction of the Slytherins.

I turn my head to look in the direction that James is pointing, only to see Severus staring at James and I, looking murderous. I quickly turn back to James and shrug.

"I don't care."

"He's still trying to get back in your good books, then?" James asks me in a hushed voice.

"Yes. But it won't happen, not after what he said to me."

"You'd think that after you ignored him for a year he'd just give it up already," James responded, still looking in Severus' direction.

"Would you watch what you're doing?" I say to James, just as he's about to add the wrong ingredient to our potion. "And you're one to talk. How many times have I turned you down, and yet you still continue to ask me out."

"Haven't asked you out yet, have I?" He says with a grin. I roll my eyes at him. "One of these days you'll say yes," he adds as an afterthought.

"I wouldn't hold my breath," I mumble. James just laughs, as if he knows something I don't. I roll my eyes again.

"So, Evans," he says, trying, and failing, to come off nonchalant.

"No, Potter, I will not go out with you."

"How did you know that's what I was going to say?"

"Potter, you've been asking me out several times a day since the third year."

"Good point."

Sirius, who had evidently been listening in on our conversation, turns around and says to James, "You should've waited until the potion was finished and asked her after a nice little dose of Felix Felicis."

James claps his hand to his forehead. "Obviously," he says, eyeing the potion that we're brewing.

"Don't even think about it," I say sharply, and resolve to watch him closely through the rest of class to make sure he doesn't steal any.

________________________________________________________________________

The rest of the day, I'm battling with myself.

_You should just go out with him._

_But I don't want to go out with him!_

…_But I kind of do._

_But he's James Potter! Besides, everyone thinks you hate him._

_But I don't. And he's changed! He's not the same ass that he used to be…_

I can't think about anything else. The feelings I once had for James are resurfacing, stronger than they were before, threatening to overpower me, and it's scaring me.

"Lily."

I turn around, not realizing whose voice had called me. I'm on my way to Gryffindor tower, standing in a corridor alone, save for the person who called to me.

Severus.

"Would you leave me alone?" I say, exasperated. I've had a long, tiring day.

"Would you just talk to me?"

"No, I will not. We have nothing to discuss. I told you yesterday, we're not friends anymore. And we never will be again."

"It's not about that this time. It's about James Potter."

I sigh. "What about him?"

"Don't go out with him."

"Oh, well if you don't want me to, then I definitely won't," I say, rolling my eyes. "This is my business, not yours."

"But it's James Potter! You used to hate his guts! You know he's a bully."

"He's changed." Severus looks affronted. "He has! He hasn't tried to hex you once yet, has he? That's got to be some kind of record."

"But-"

"Listen, and listen good, because I'm not going to say this again. Even if I was going to go out with James, and I'm not saying I am, I would certainly not be discussing it with you. Don't try to talk to me again, and don't corner me like this again."

I turn around and continue walking towards Gryffindor Tower without waiting to see Severus' reaction. My little chat with Severus, more than anything else, made me finally decide what I wanted.

**________________________________________________________________________**

**There you go! I hope you guys enjoy it! I would love it so very much if you guys would review!**

**The next chapter will be up sometime next week, so look out for it!**


	4. Flashback

**Here's Chapter Four! Enjoy!**

**Whatever you recognize belongs to JK Rowling, not me.**

Three days went by. Then a week. Never before had this much time passed without James asking me out. It was driving me insane. Every time I saw him, I waited, expecting him to ask me at any moment, but he never did. I even started making excuses to be closer to James, in the hope that he would ask me out, but to no avail.

By the time Wednesday rolled around, I was getting anxious. Nine whole days had passed without James asking me out.

________________________________________________________________________

"So, James hasn't asked me out in a while," I say to Mary as we walk to Transfiguration. Obviously I'm desperate if I'm discussing my desire for James Potter to ask me out with Mary.

"I noticed. Maybe he's finally taken the hint."

"Maybe…" I say, and my heart sinks. What if this is actually the case? What if he's finally given up? What if he starts going out with someone else? Have I missed my chance?

Alice, a friend of ours, catches up with us, a smile lighting up her round face. She and Mary start talking animatedly to one another, leaving me to wallow in my own self-pity.

"Evans," I hear from behind me, and suddenly my dark mood turns light. Maybe now…

Mary smirks and says, "I guess I was wrong," and she and Alice continue on to Transfiguration while I hang back and wait for James.

James catches up with me, and we walk together down the corridor, toward Professor McGonagall's classroom.

"Professor Dumbledore wanted me to tell you that he wants to meet with us tonight. You know," he says, "Head meeting."

"Right," I say, and my excitement begins to mount, because it surely must be coming soon…

"Hey guys."

I have never hated Sirius Black more than I do right now.

Sirius joins us as we walk toward Transfiguration, completely ruining any chance there was of James asking me out now.

_Fine, _I think to myself. _It's time to take matters into my own hands._

__________________________________________________________________________

I've never asked anyone out before. I don't exactly know how to do it. All those times that James asked me out, and I never once paid any attention to how the actual asking was executed. I regret that, now that I'm faced with performing this task myself.

James must really be confident with himself, because he never once looked nervous when he asked me out, either. All day, I try to get James on his own so that _I _could ask _him_ out, only to chicken out at the last second. How did he do it all those times, without even breaking a sweat? For that matter, after being rejected so many times, how did he stay confident; how did he have the courage to ask me again? I've never really thought about all this before, and now that I do, I must say, I admire James for his courage.

I wish I had that courage.

Now, I find myself skulking down corridors, looking into any empty classroom, trying to find James. Pathetic, I know, but I'm on a mission. He's not in the Common Room, and he's not in his Dormitory (I asked Remus). He's also not in the Great Hall, the Library, and he's not outside. I don't know where else to go!

I sigh, and finally give up my search. I'll just go sit in the Common Room, and wait for him to come back. If anything, I can talk to him after the Head meeting tonight, but I don't know if I can wait that long; my nerves are driving me insane.

On the way back to Gryffindor Tower, I hear voices coming from an empty classroom. Two voices I know…

"Scourgify!" James yells as I push open the door of the classroom, pointing his wand at Severus. The scene before my eyes is familiar. Too familiar. This could have been two years ago, we could've been on the grounds by the lake. Hadn't James used this exact spell on Severus on that fateful day? And hadn't his bullying of Severus caused me to give up on James?

I thought he had changed, but it's obvious to me now that he hasn't. Now, I'm glad I didn't get the chance to ask him out; I'm glad I chickened out. James Potter is still the same arrogant, bullying, slime ball that he had always been. I'm just glad I found out before the damage was done.

"Lily?"

James spots me standing in the doorway, and lowers his wand. I catch James' eye, turn on the spot, and walk out the door without saying a word to him.

But he runs after me.

"Lily, wait, don't be mad, I can explain!"

"Just leave me alone, Potter," I say without turning around, so that James won't see the tears that I can't stop from spilling out.

"Evans. Hey, EVANS!" James yells from behind me, just as he had two years ago.

But just like on that day, I don't look back.

________________________________________________________________________

I consider skipping the head meeting completely, just so I won't have to see James. I can't believe that I thought he had changed. How could I be so incredibly dim?

With a sigh, I vacate my bed, on which I had been laying for a number of hours, thinking about what I had seen.

The small part of me that still, stupidly, has feelings for James is still holding on.

_He had said he could explain…_

But could he? Could he really?

James arrives to the Head meeting before I do. All through the meeting he tries to catch my eye, but I won't look at him. I can't, or the that small part of me will prevail, and I can't let that happen.

However, I can't avoid him when our meeting is over, as we're walking toward the same place. As soon as we leave Dumbledore's office, I brace myself for James' pleads and excuses.

"Evans, listen," James says. I ignore him, and walk a bit faster.

He speeds up as well. "Listen," he repeats, "I know that the subject of Snivellus has always kind of been a sore spot for you, but you need to listen to me-"

"I don't need to listen to anything," I say, stopping in my tracks, and turning to face James. "You're just a bully! You've always tormented Severus, and for what reason? Why can't you just leave him alone?"

"He hexed me first! From behind too, he didn't even have the guts to look me in the eye and--"

"But why did you have to hex him back? Why did you stoop to his level? Why couldn't you be mature for once in your life and just walk away?"

"I--"

"I don't want to hear what you have to say, Potter. You need to grow up, okay? Do me a favor, don't sit near me in the Great Hall, don't get Black to be partners with Mary so I'll be forced to be your partner in class, and stop asking me out. Just leave me alone."

James' shoulders, usually raised in confidence, sag. "Fine," he says, his voice flat, "I'll leave you alone. I'm sorry that I upset you, and I'm sorry that I bug you so much. It won't happen again, I promise."

And with that, James turns and walks away, leaving me standing in the deserted corridor, completely stunned. _That_ was not what I was expecting.

As I watch James walk away, apparently defeated, I am filled with emotion. That little part of me has finally succeeded.

_What the hell did I just do?_

________________________________________________________________________

**There it is! I hope you enjoyed it! **

**You may have noticed that I updated the story three times in one week. You may be asking yourself why I have done this (or I may be making assumption about what you're thinking). It's because I'm nearly finished writing this fan fiction (I plan to be finished by Tuesday!), so I'm no longer in fear of leaving you guys hanging while it takes my three weeks to overcome my writers block (or three months, which is how long it took me to get back into my writing last time). Therefore, you can expect another update by Monday. **

**Thanks for reading, and I hope you review!**


	5. Help

"So tell me exactly what happened."

Mary and I are sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room the next day. I had told James to leave me alone a million times before, so I was just expecting him to go right back to himself, but he didn't. The change in him was noticeable; previously, he and Sirius had been the life and soul of every class, cracking jokes and making distractions whenever possible, but today there was none of that. He sat in class quietly, not paying me any attention. I did, however, get a very nasty look from Sirius, who clearly knows of my role in the changes in his best friend.

I sigh. "I saw him bullying Severus, and I got angry."

Mary rolls her eyes. She just doesn't understand why I care. Severus may not be my friend any longer, but I still don't want to see him get bullied for no reason whatsoever.

"So I yelled at Potter and told him to leave me alone."

"Like you do about twice a day."

"It's different this time." As I say this, the portrait hole swings open, and James, Sirius, Remus and Peter enter the Common Room. "Watch," I tell Mary.

"Hi, Potter!" I say brightly, plastering a huge, fake, smile onto my face. Normally, James would get so excited that I willingly talked to him that he'd trip over something before replying to me, and then he'd have a huge grin on his face for the rest of the day. Today, though, James just blushes, and walks right past me without a word, while Sirius shoots me yet another nasty look.

"Wow," Mary breathes, "You crushed him!"

"I know," I say miserably, and put my head on my arms. "I am such a terrible person."

"You are not. He'll get over it. Besides, isn't this what you've always wanted? For Potter to leave you alone?"

"Yes, but… not like this! I ripped out his heart, tore it into a million little pieces, then threw them on the floor and stomped on them! I feel," I hit my head on the table I'm sitting right next to, and it makes a loud _thunk, _"so," _thunk, _"horrible," _thunk. _

Mary grabs my arm, and pulls me toward our dormitory, probably so I won't keep smashing my head on the table.

Really, what I told Mary about how I was feeling was only half true. Last night, when I had gotten back to my dormitory, the full weight of what I had done really hit me. I had ruined any chance there had ever been of James and I being together. Sure, I could go and tell him how I feel, but after what I had said to him, was their really any chance that he would forgive me? And, as Mary had said, he's going to get over it eventually. And what then? He dates someone else, and I sit here pining away for him? I truly can't see myself with anyone other than James, and seeing him with someone else would kill me. I _need _to fix this, but how?

When we reach our deserted dormitory, Mary grabs me by the shoulders. "You need to get a hold of yourself."

"What am I going to do?" I cry. Even though I've finally embraced my true feelings about James, I can't bring myself to tell Mary. She may be my best friend, but I still don't want to share this secret with her.

And just like that, I have a plan about how to fix this, as if a light bulb just went on above my head.

"If you really feel that badly, you'll go apologize to him," Mary says, snapping me out of my reverie.

"Yeah," I respond, "I'll do that." But I won't. There's something else I need to do.

________________________________________________________________________

Ultimately, getting Sirius Black on his own is easier than I was expecting.

I thought that it would be difficult, seeing as how he's always with James. My plan was to stay in the Common Room, waiting for James to go upstairs to his dormitory, therefore leaving Sirius alone. A feeble plan, I admit, but it was the best I could think of.

I tell Mary and Alice to go on up to the dormitory without me; I tell them I need to work on my Transfiguration essay some more. They don't question me.

I sit and wait for everyone to leave the common room, all the while pretending to work on my essay. My fingers are crossed under the table; I need Sirius to hang back in the Common Room while the rest go up to the dormitory.

It takes forever for James and his friends to decide to go up to bed. Just as I'm nodding off in my chair, I hear Sirius speak.

"No, you guys go, I'll catch up with you in a minute."

My head snaps up. No longer tired, I look around to see James, Remus, and Peter walking up the stairs to their dormitory. When I turn back, I see Sirius standing right in front of me.

I jump about a foot in the air. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Sirius ignores me. "What the hell is your problem?" He asks me.

"Listen," I begin, but Sirius cuts me off.

"No, Evans, you listen. You may not want to go out with James, but did you really need to crush him like that? You really couldn't let him down easy?"

"Black-"

"That guy," he points toward the stairs James had just walked up, "is crazy about you! He always has been! And what do you do? You hurt him! You rip him apart; you crush his spirit! He doesn't deserve to be treated like that!"

"You're right."

"I- Wait, what?" He says, startled. He clearly wasn't expecting this response from me.

"I said you're right. He doesn't deserve to be treated like that. And that's why you've got to help me."

Sirius laughs. "You're barking. I'm not going to help _you_, not after the way you treated my best mate!"

"It's not about me!" I yell, and Sirius looks completely taken aback. "It's about James! You don't think I already know what I've done? Don't you think that I feel completely terrible right now? All I want is to undo what I've done, and I'm asking for your help. Please."

I know by the look on Sirius' face that he's going to help me. But at the same time, he looks skeptical.

"Why do you care? You hate James."

It's time for me to come clean; I can't hide it anymore. I have to let out my deepest secret, or else Sirius won't help me.

"I don't hate James. I love him."

I'm expecting Sirius to look skeptical, to not believe me. To my surprise however, his face breaks into a wide grin.

"I KNEW it! I _knew _that you loved James."

I roll my eyes, trying to disguise my embarrassment, and say, "So will you help me or not?"

Sirius's face falls, and he becomes completely serious. "Oh, I'll help you," he says, "It won't be easy, but I'll help you."


	6. You've Got To Make Him Jealous

**JKR is way cooler than I am.**

**________________________________________________________________________**

"You've got to make him jealous."

"Excuse me?"

Sirius and I sit are both sitting on the top of a desk in an empty classroom; we can't discuss my dilemma in the Common Room, or else James might see us together, and we might be overheard. I'm not particularly keen on the idea of sitting in an empty classroom with Sirius Black, but if I want him to help me, I've got to play by his rules.

I gaze at Sirius with a look of incredulity on my face, in utter disbelief of what he's telling me to do.

Sirius sighs, exasperated.

"You've got to make him jealous," he repeats, saying each word slowly, as if he was speaking to a foreigner who didn't quite grasp the English language.

"You've _got_ to be joking."

"I'm afraid I'm not, Evans," he says with a smirk. "I guarantee if James sees you with another guy, particularly a guy he doesn't like, he will be so consumed with jealousy that he'll probably hex the other bloke and demand that you go out with him instead."

The sad part is that Sirius is right. James had done exactly that when we were in fifth year, and I went to Hogsmeade with Gary Redman (of Hufflepuff). I could still hear James' voice in my head: _"What the hell, Evans? You'll go out with this idiot, but not with me?"_

I was not happy about Sirius' proposition, especially since it required me to use some poor guy, and then subject him to getting hexed by James, but at least with this plan I could see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I sighed and, against my better judgment, said, "_fine_."

"Good!" Sirius said brightly. "Now the only question is, who are you going to ask out?"

________________________________________________________________________

"I changed my mind, I don't love James. Can I leave now?"

"Evans, you disgust me. Do it now, or I'll hex you."

I sigh, and start to walk across the Great Hall. I turn around to see Sirius with his wand pointing straight at me. He mouths the word "go," and I turn back around and head toward the Ravenclaw table, where several Seventh Year boys are enjoying their lunch.

"_Ask Terrence Brochford; he's such a prat. James will definitely get annoyed if he sees you with that git," _Sirius had told me earlier. I had had my doubts, though.

"_What if he says no?" _I asked nervously. _"What do I do then?"_

"_Well," _Sirius said, _"then you just ask out the next guy you see, I suppose."_

You can see how this can potentially be very embarrassing for me.

I take a deep breath, and sit down next to Terrence at the Ravenclaw table.

"Hi," I say breathlessly, and Terrence, who hadn't noticed that I'd sat down next to him, jumps.

"Um…hi." He says.

He stares at me expectantly, and I stare back, my mouth hanging open. My mind is a blank_. What do I say now_? And again, I remember what Sirius had told me earlier today.

_"Oh, Terrence," _He said in an annoying, high pitched voice, _"I wanted to go to watch the Gryffindor Quidditch Team's practice today, but I don't want to go all by myself!" _Sirius batted his eyes.

_"I don't sound like that when I talk! And I'm not going to make myself look like an idiot just so I can make James jealous!"_

_"You will if I say you will."_

_"You can't tell me what--"_

_"Didn't you come to me for help? Evans, if you want to do this thing, you've got to listen to me. When you talk to that prick Terrence, you've got to turn on the charm. Bat your eyelids, play with your hair. Trust me, I know what a girl can do to drive a guy crazy."_

_"How? I can't imagine any girl who would want charm _you_."_

_"Oh, ha ha, Evans."_

I turn around and look at Sirius. He bats his eyes again. I roll my eyes and turn back to Terrence.

"So..." I start.

_I can't believe I'm going to do this._

"Today the Gryffindor Team is having a practice session," I say, flipping my long hair over my shoulder.

Terrence stares at me with a blank expression. How thick can you get?

I try not to let my exasperation show. Instead, I plant a smile on my face and say, "Would you like to join me?"

"I don't think my girlfriend would like that very much."

My face falls, and I look around at Sirius, who is roaring with laughter. He had obviously known that Terrence had a girlfriend when he had suggested that I ask him out.

_What now? _I mouth to Sirius, who points at the guy sitting next to Terrence. I don't even know what his name is, but I decide to give it a shot anyway.

I put the sickening smile back on my face and say, "What about you? Would you like to come watch the practice with me?"

The boy looks startled. "Not really…"

_What the hell?_

"Doesn't anyone want to go out with me?" I look around at all the boys sitting near Terrence and the other boy, and they all look back at me with blank expressions on their faces. "FINE," I say angrily, and I walk back over to where Sirius is sitting.

"No luck, eh?"

"Why don't any of them want to go out with me? What's wrong with me?" I yell at Sirius.

"Well I would say that it's your nasty temper, Evans, but really it could be a number of other things."

"WHAT? Like what, Black?"

"However much I'd like to give you more reason to yell at me, we have more important matters to discuss. I can't help but notice that you have failed to produce a date on your own."

I don't answer; instead I sit down next to Sirius at the Gryffindor Table in an angry huff.

"Which means we must move on to Plan B. I trust you remember what Plan B is?"

"Oh, I remember."

"_In the event that you cannot come up with your own man, I will provide one for you."_

"So, I need to get you a date!"

I groan. "I only asked a few Ravenclaws, if you give me more time--"

"Time is up, Evans. I must take matters into my own hands." With this, he stands up, and climbs onto the Gryffindor Table.

_This cannot be good._

"Good people of Hogwarts!" Sirius says in a loud voice. Many people stop eating their lunch and turn to look at the spectacle that Sirius is creating. I hide my head in my arms, hoping no one will realize that I'm sitting here. "I have an announcement! The lovely Miss Evans, here," Sirius bends down and pulls me up so that I'm standing, "wishes to observe the Gryffindor Quidditch Team's practice this afternoon! However, she does not wish to attend the practice alone! Any young man who is interested in accompanying Miss Evans should see me immediately! Thank you," Sirius concludes, as Professor McGonagall gives him a scathing look, "that is all." Sirius sits back down, the wide grin he usually wears when he's making trouble spread on his face.

"I hate you so much," I say to him, also sitting down.

"You'll thank me later."

"Thank you for what? Embarrassing me?"

Sirius ignores me, and waits for someone to come take him up on his offer of a date with me. Every time a boy walks by the Gryffindor table, Sirius loudly says, "Would you like a date with Lily Evans?" Every time, though, the boy says no, and walks away.

"Am I really that revolting?" I ask Sirius after fifteen minutes of this grueling torture.

Sirius looks me up and down, and says "Nah, you're not that bad."

"Well thanks for the reassurance," I say under my breath, and Sirius laughs.

"Well, I was really expecting this plan to work."

"Oh yes, because every guy wants to go on a date with a girl who is so desperate that she has to get a guy that she hates to ask the entire Great Hall if anyone would date her. No, there was nothing stupid about that plan at all."

"Well, then, if _you've_ got a better plan--"

"You KNOW I don't have a better plan, or else I wouldn't have needed your help in the first place," I snap. "What are we going to do now?"

"Plan C."

_Damn it, _I think to myself. _I'd hoped he'd forgotten about that._

"_If Plan B doesn't pan out," _Sirius had said earlier, _"You'll have no choice but to go with me."_

I scoffed. _"Don't you think James might be a bit suspicious if he sees me at the practice with his best mate?"_

"_Not if he doesn't know it's me!" _

I gave Sirius a disbelieving look. _"If you're thinking of Plolyjuice Potion--"_

"_Actually, I didn't even think of that," _he said, looking impressed. _"But as we don't really have enough time to brew up an entire potion, I think it would be easier to go with Transfiguration."_

"_Aren't you afraid that James will hex you?" _I asked, searching for any reason not to go through with this plan.

"_I'll take one for the team."_

"_But--"_

"_Evans!" _Sirius said sharply, _"We're doing this."_

__________________________________________________________________________

"Take my hand."

Sirius and I are walking together towards the Quidditch Pitch, though anyone who saw us would have no idea that it was Sirius who I was walking with. He had Transfigured his features so that he no longer looked like himself, but instead resembled a Hufflepuff Seventh Year who was currently in the hospital wing (because Sirius had hexed him).

"Do you want me to hex you?"

"Evans, do you want to make James jealous or not? Take my hand!"

"Ugh, _fine_," I say. I take hold of Sirius' warm hand, and he laces his fingers through mine.

"Now, pretend that you like me," he says with a grin as we approach the spectator's stands at the Quidditch Pitch. "Let's take a seat right at the front."

When we sit and get ourselves situated, Sirius points across the field. "Here they come! I should warn you," he adds, "James hasn't been flying as well as he usually does." He shoots me a disdainful look, clearly still angry about the harm I've caused.

Before the Gryffindor Team takes flight, James, the Captain, gives the team members many directions that I don't quite understand. Quidditch has always been like another language to me. Suddenly, many of the team members mount their brooms and rise into the air. James lets the balls go, and mounts his broom as well. Before he takes off, though, he turns his sad eyes on me. I am suddenly very aware that Sirius is still holding my hand. I try to break away, but Sirius tightens his grip.

"It's all a part of the plan, Evans."

"This plan is stupid!"

"The plan is fine."

"It's not going to work!"

"Then we'll try something else!"

I whip my head around to face Sirius instead of the Quidditch Pitch, and as I do, Sirius' expression turns into a grimace. When I turn back around I see why: James had just flown right into one of the goal posts.

I gasp. "I hope he's alright!"

To my surprise, Sirius is grinning. "He was watching us talk. It's working!"

My excitement mounts. I hadn't really thought it was going to work; I had thought that Sirius was just being stupid. But now I can see the genius in the plan. I look over at Sirius, a smile on my face. I'm so happy I could kiss him!

"Time to go in for the kill," he says.

"What?" I ask, puzzled.

"He's looking!" Sirius said, and before I even knew what was happening, Sirius had grabbed my face in his hands, and I feel his lips mashed against mine…

I push Sirius away so hard that he nearly falls over.

"You are such an ASS," I yell at him.

"You asked for my help!"

"I didn't know that 'help' meant 'snog!'" I yell, and I slap him hard across the face, and feel very gratified when it makes a loud smacking sound. "I don't want your help anymore."

"Oh, come on, Evans."

I turned on my heel and walked away from him and, even though he kept calling me, I didn't turn back.

**________________________________________________________________________**

**So, I thought I'd share with you guys a few interesting things about the actual writing of this chapter! **

**First, the guy that Lily went out with in the 5th**** year, Gary Redman's name was actually supposed to be Gary Foreman, since I was watching That 70's Show at the same time that I was writing this, but I'm pretty sure there's a real guy named Gary Foreman, so I just decided to put Red Foreman's first and last name together to create Redman.**

**Another interesting little fact: originally, Lily was going to be the one to kiss Sirius, and then Sirius was going to bug out a bit, and it probably would've been very funny, but it just didn't work.**

**For whatever reason, the little love notes that I leave for you guys at the end of the chapter didn't show up in the last chapter, so I'll tell you know what I was supposed to tell you there:**

**I finished writing this fic! I know, it's exciting. So I want to start writing another fic, and I have a few ideas floating around, but I can't decide which I want to do! So I'll let you guys decide for me. Here's what you can choose from:**

**(a) Another James/Lily fic**

**(b) Malfoy's Diary**

**( c) The Bachelor: Harry Potter Style**

**(d) A fic that takes place in the Black Lake!**

**So choose which one you'd like to read about, and let me know in the reviews. Whichever one gets the most votes will be the one I write!**

**As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you'll review!**


	7. You've Got To Show Some Skin

**If I were JKR I would be rich and famous. I am not rich and famous, therefore I am not JKR.**

**________________________________________________________________________**

A week passed after the incident at the Gryffindor Quidditch practice. James is beginning to act like his normal self again, though I'm beginning to doubt whether he'll ever again act the same way toward me that he used to: when we had Head Meetings together he barely looked me in the eye and only talked to me when he absolutely had to, plus, I had seen him flirting with some Ravenclaw Sixth Year, which did nothing to help the sour mood that I had been in since Sirius had tried to kiss me.

_God, I'm so stupid! _How could I ever have trusted Sirius Black? Of course he only wanted to make a fool of me, to get me back for what I had done to his best friend.

_Maybe I deserved it, _I think to myself. _Maybe I should just give up on James; maybe I should let him go. He'll be happier this way…_

Even as I think it, my heart sinks. _This is all my fault…_

I sigh and shift my position on the chair I'm sitting in in the Gryffindor Common Room. I look down at the book I'm supposed to be studying from, and close it, knowing that I just don't have the concentration to do this tonight. I look to my left, and I jump about a foot into the air when I realize that there's someone in the seat next to mine.

"Evans, I'm sorry."

"Black, don't you have anything better to do than to keep bothering me?" I ask Sirius. He had been trying to talk to me and apologize several times a day since last week, but, as I'm extremely stubborn, I had consistently ignored him.

"Not really, actually. James is a bit peeved at me, and I haven't had much to do without him."

"Why is he angry with you?" I ask derisively, "Could it possibly be because you're the world's biggest prat?"

Sirius gives a sarcastic laugh. "Actually, it is something like that."

"Well good," I say, taking pleasure in the fact that Sirius is, evidently, as miserable as I am. But Sirius coming to me had planted an idea in my head. _Maybe there's still hope…_

"Evans, listen." I turn away. "I still want to help you!"

"Well I don't want your help anymore, Black!" I snap. "I didn't come to you so that you could make me look like a fool in front of everyone in the Great Hall, or so that you could trick me into snogging you. That's wasn't was this was about."

"I know, and I'm sorry. Listen, give me a another chance. I promise I won't do anything stupid this time."

"I highly doubt that," I say, and he smiles, sensing that I'm about to give in.

"Truce?" he asks me, holding out his hand.

I sigh. _There must be something wrong with me. _

"Truce," I reply, shaking his outstretched hand. "I assume you have another outrageous plan that will probably embarrass me?"

Sirius grins. "In fact, I do. Meet me here in the morning before you go down to the Great Hall, and I'll tell you all about my master plan."

_Master Plan? _I think to myself. _This cannot be good…_

__________________________________________________________________________

"You're here." Sirius looks stunned. Apparently he had believed that I would change my mind, that I had decided that I didn't want his help. We're united in our surprise.

_I can't believe I'm doing this to myself…_

"You told me to meet you here, didn't you?" I ask fiercely; I still haven't completely forgiven him for being such as ass.

"I didn't think you'd actually show."

"Well I'm here," I say dejectedly, and sigh. "What do I have to do?"

Sirius' face erupts into a wide grin. "You've got to show some skin!"

I keep my face blank. "What do you mean?"

Sirius' smile grows even wider, and I groan. This can only be bad.

"It means you've got to hike up you skirt, undo some of the buttons on your blouse, and you've got to shake what your mama gave 'ya!"

I don't say anything. I simply just turn and walk back toward my dormitory. Much to my dismay, though, Sirius grabs me by the arm before I can even make it halfway across the Common Room.

"Evans, come on!"

"There is absolutely no way that I'm doing that, Black! You told me you wouldn't be acting stupid!"

"No, Evans, I told you I wouldn't _do _anything stupid. And I'm not; you are!"

"Yeah, see, that's where you're wrong."

"Ah, Evans, don't be such a prude!"

I round on him. "Don't be such a prude?" I look at Sirius, an expression of utter disbelief upon my face. "_Don't be such a prude?" _I repeat, in an extremely shrill voice. "I cannot _believe _you! I will not make myself look like a slut in front of the entire school just because you tell me to!"

________________________________________________________________________

"I can't believe I'm going to make myself look like a slut in front of the entire school just because you told me to."

"Trust me, Evans, this is going to be so worth it." Sirius looks at me. "You look…really good."

_SLAP._

"You are on _thin ice_, Black," I whisper menacingly to Sirius. "If I see you look anywhere but my eyes, you will be getting a swift kick in the groin."

Sirius winces and looks away, much to my satisfaction. For about the millionth time in the past five minutes, I look down at my outfit and I also wince. I can't believe what I'm doing right now: my skirt is up way too high, showing off much too much leg, and there are more buttons open on my shirt than necessary, which shows off way too much. **(A/N I'll let you use your imagination here. I don't really feel like getting into all the gory details of Lily's scanty attire.) **

I sigh. "You'd better hope this works, Black, because this is going to be extremely embarrassing for me, and if it doesn't work, your ass is on the line."

"I'll keep that in mind," he says, but he's grinning. "There's James," he says, pointing toward the Gryffindor Table. "Go sit next to him. I'll be right behind you."

I take a deep breath, and walk toward where James is sitting with Peter, walking tall and strutting a bit, like Sirius had told me to do. I look back at him, and he gives me the thumbs up. I feel like an idiot.

I keep walking forward. When I reach James I stop and awkwardly hover behind him before saying, "Uh… hey Potter!"

James turns around, and he looks me up and down. And then his jaw drops.

"Evans…" He seems speechless, and I blush.

_I may be embarrassing myself, but it's working! _

My heart starts pounding super fast as I realize that this is the first time that James has spoken to me in weeks.

_Sirius is a genius!_

Bursting with excitement, I say, "Can I sit here?"

James, still staring up at me in disbelief (which makes me feel rather uncomfortable as I become aware of how short my skirt really is) nods his head, and I sit down next to him.

I don't know what to do now. Sirius and I hadn't discussed what I would say to James after I actually sat down next to him. I look behind me to catch Sirius' eye, but he's nowhere in sight. I turn around, and find that James is still looking at me, but with a slightly different expression this time. Just as he opens his mouth to say something to me, I hear Professor McGonagall's voice.

"MISS EVANS!" she roars, and she pulls me up from my seat and drags me out of the Great Hall.

"This is a travesty! You are Head Girl! I cannot believe that you are acting this way! I would never have believed it of you!"

"Professor, I--"

"Detention, Miss Evans!"

"Detention?" My heart sinks. I've never gotten detention before.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you got detention, I must say. You were always such an admirable student!" Professor McGonagall looks at me from head to toe. "Appalling. Go change out of that ludicrous outfit, Miss Evans."

________________________________________________________________________

"I can't believe I have detention."

I currently sit in Professor Slughorn's office, copying lines. Slughorn had gone into his inner office and turned on his music; he didn't feel that he needed to keep watch over his favorite student. This gave me the perfect opportunity to take out the mirror that Sirius had given me so that I could talk to him during my detention.

"I have never been so proud of you," he says, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye.

"You told me you were going to be right behind me? Where did you go?"

"Oh, I, uh… it doesn't matter."

I raise my eyebrows.

"The good news is," Sirius says, changing the subject, "that James took notice of your little display today."

"He talked to me for the first time in weeks!" I say, and I'm not able to keep the happiness out of my voice. Obviously Sirius notices this, because an expression of amusement comes onto his face, but he otherwise ignores my outburst.

"The bad news is--"

"Bad news?" I ask, my heart sinking. "The bad news was supposed to be that I'm in detention."

"There's more bad news than that. The bad news is," he repeats, "it doesn't seem to have done the trick."

"What?"

"We're going to have to move on to phase three."

"Oh my God," I say, exasperated, "What ridiculous thing are you going to have me do now?

**________________________________________________________________________**

**What is Sirius going to make Lily do? Will Lily ever get James to love her again? When will Lily realize that taking advice from Sirius Black is an extremely dumb thing to do? Why am I asking so many questions? Read the next chapter to find out!**

**Okay, so I only got two votes for which fic I should write next, so I'll extend the voting to this chapter as well. Do you want to read about:**

**(a) another Lily/James fic?**

**(b) The Bachelor: Harry Potter edition?**

**( c) Malfoy's Diary?**

**(d) a fic that takes place in the Black Lake?**

**Let me know in the reviews! Thanks for reading!**


	8. You've Got To Put Yourself In Danger

**I'm running out of cute little things to say about how I'm not JKR and don't own the characters. Just know that I'm not, and I don't.**

**________________________________________________________________________**

"He's looking this way!"

"Would you pull yourself together, Evans?" Sirius asks me, annoyed. "You're acting like an over-emotional school girl."

I resist the urge to remind Sirius that I _am _an over-emotional school girl, and instead address another issue.

"What's up with you? You've been in a horrible mood since the other day."

It was true. When I had gotten back from my detention, Sirius had been in a terrible temper. Usually he torments people and pulls pranks for the sheer fun of it, but lately he's been acting out a lot more often, leading me to believe that he must be upset about something.

"James and I are still fighting."

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

I turn and look at James, who is still looking in our direction. Actually, he's glaring at Sirius; I've never seen him give his best friend such a look of contempt. It's strange.

As if he senses me looking at him, James shifts his gaze over to me, and catches my eye. He looks away to talk to Remus, smiling. My heart flutters.

I know I should try to comfort Sirius, because he's obviously upset about fighting with James, but I can't even manage to feel bad for him, not when I'm so happy about the headway we made with James. For this reason, I decide not to press the issue.

"So when does Phase Three begin?"

Sirius breaks into an unexpected grin. "As soon as the moment arises."

If it makes Sirius so happy, it can only be a plan in which I embarrass myself. A lot.

I look around the Common Room again. Somehow, it had become general knowledge that Sirius and I are friends, so we felt that there would be no need to hide in empty classrooms anymore_. _

_Could that be what James and Sirius had fought about? How Sirius and I are spending so much time together_?

It was true, though. Sirius and I had become inexplicably inseparable. We sat together in the Common Room, ate together in the Great Hall, and partnered each other in class.

_Or maybe Sirius is spending so much time with me_ because _he fought with James. Maybe he just needs someone to hang around with until they make up. _

I come back to my senses and answer Sirius. "What are you going to make me do?"

Sirius' grin grows even wider. "You've got to put yourself in danger."

"And how am I going to do that?" I don't even bother trying to dissuade Sirius from this idea; I'm only going to end up going along with it anyway.

"You're going to wrestle with the Giant Squid."

"Uh," I try to find something to say to repudiate Sirius' assertion, but come up short; he's only going to make me do it anyway. "I don't have a bathing suit," I finish lamely.

Sirius actually laughs at this. "Evans, if you wear a bathing suit, it's going to be sort of obvious that you set yourself up for that. You need to 'accidentally' put yourself in danger so James will save you and think that he's acting the hero."

"Won't it be cold in the lake?" I say without thinking.

"Yes, but I can't help that," Sirius shrugs.

"What if I really get hurt?"

"In an ideal situation James will come to your aid before anything happens to you. But if something does, that's what Madame Pomfrey is for, isn't it?"

"Black!"

"Okay, okay!" Sirius says, rolling his eyes. "I won't let anything happen to you, okay? I'll be right there to make sure you're fine."

I glare at Sirius. He glares back.

"C'mon."

That's all he has to say. _What happened to the days where he'd have to fight to convince me to go along with these ridiculous schemes?_

"Okay."

________________________________________________________________________

"I hate you SO MUCH, Sirius Black."

"Love you too, Evans," Sirius says with a grin. This infuriates me even more.

As we walk together down the corridor, my robes drip water onto the floor. As if my day wasn't bad enough, Filch spots the water I've left on the floor.

"Defacement of the school!" He yells, striding toward me.

"Oh, shove off," I say, and make a very rude hand gesture toward Filch, which causes Sirius to erupt into his bark-like laughter. I ignore him and speed off down the corridor.

Sirius increases the speed of his walking in order to keep up with me. "You need to chill, Evans," he says, still laughing.

"_I need to chill?" _I stop in my tracks. Sirius, unaware that I'd stopped walking, looks around in confusion. He backtracks to stand next to me.

"The plan just went a bit… awry, that's all."

"'_A bit awry_?' The entire school watched and laughed as I made a fool of myself, _again. _Wait, no, let me correct myself. The entire school, _except James. _How is he supposed to save me if he's not even there?"

"It was an honest mistake, Evans."

"Honest mistake, my ass. You _like _watching me make a fool of myself."

"Well, it's funny."

I give him the dirtiest look I can muster.

"I was just trying to help!"

"_You were trying to help?" _I let out a sarcastic laugh. "Did you help me when the Giant Squid was throwing me around like a toy? _No. _Did you help me when the Giant Squid pushed me under the water and a Grindylow pulled on my foot and I nearly drowned? _No. _Did you help me when the damn Squid slapped me in the face? _No. _Did you help me when everyone gathered around the lake to watch? _No. _No, you didn't help me. Finally, _finally, _you saved me, but only after the Squid _pulled down my pants!" _**( A/N I really get into my writing. I was just pounding on my keyboard as if I'm really as angry as Lily is)**

As I stand there staring at Sirius in anger, my throat burning from all the yelling I had just done, Sirius, instead of looking sorry, as I had intended, bursts into laughter. He begins to laugh so hard, that soon he's doubled over, gasping for breath, saying "It…was…so…funny," in between his laughs.

I storm away in anger, and Sirius follows me, still chortling.

"The one day I wear granny-panties," I mutter to myself.

"Yeah, what was that about?"

"It's laundry day!" I yell in exasperation.

Sirius begins to laugh even harder than before, and I leave him there and go to my Dormitory to change into something a bit less wet.

________________________________________________________________________

"I'm not putting myself in danger again."

"Good Morning to you too," Sirius says, rubbing his eyes as he sits down next to me in the Great Hall the next day.

"I mean it. I will not put myself through that again."

"Come on, Evans. It was funny."

"Maybe it was for you, but it wasn't for me. You'll just have to think of something else, because I won't do it and you can't make me." I realize that I sound like a five year old who's parents just told her that she needs to visit the dentist, but I don't care.

"Whatever," Sirius says. For some reason he's grinning. I don't really think I want to know why. If I've learned anything from hanging around with Sirius, it's that when he grins, bad things happen. "Are you going to watch the Quidditch match today?"

"Yes."

"Meet me down by the Pitch, then?"

"Sure," I say skeptically. "But why can't we walk down together?"

"I have some business to attend to."

_Oh boy._

__________________________________________________________________________

"Hey, Evans."

I'm waiting down by the Quidditch Pitch, just as Sirius had asked me to be. I'm still a bit anxious about whatever he's up to, and waste no time in bombarding him with questions.

"What business did you have to attend to?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does! I'm Head Girl! If you're up to any shenanigans, I need to know!"

"Why would I tell you? So you can put me in detention? I don't think so."

"So you admit it! You were up to something!"

"Evans, I'm always up to something."

I consider this for a moment. "That's true."

"Just drop it for now, okay? Let's sit here."

Sirius had chosen a spot to sit far away from the rest of the spectators.

"Why do we have to sit so far away?"

He mumbles something about "protection."

"_What did you do?" _I ask shrilly, but he doesn't answer me; the two teams, Gryffindor and Slytherin, had just walked onto the Quidditch Pitch.

I don't pretend to know anything about Quidditch. The sport just isn't my thing; even the games are a bit boring to me. Still, I would rather be sitting with the cheering crowd than all the way in Guam.

"I can barely see anything," I complain to Sirius as the teams lift off the ground. "I can't tell which one is James."

"He's the scrawny one with stupid glasses."

"I can't see any glasses from here."

"Evans, shut up."

"I can't even hear the commentator," I whine.

"Evans, shut up," Sirius repeats.

I sit in silence for a bit, but I become easily bored watching the game from so far a distance. I can barely tell what's going on (in truth, I probably wouldn't have any idea of what's going on even if we weren't sitting so far away, but still), and I'm starting to get really anxious about whatever stunt Sirius has pulled. If someone gets hurt, it'll be partially my fault, since I didn't tell anyone that Sirius was up to something!

"What did you do?" I whisper.

Sirius doesn't hear me. Instead he says, "it's coming."

"What's coming?" I say in a panicked voice, and Sirius points out into the field.

I look to where he points and see a bludger heading straight at us.

"_I told you I didn't want to be put in danger anymore!" _I scream at Sirius, but when I look around he's not there. I turn around.

_THUNK._

"EVANS!"

________________________________________________________________________

The bed in the Hospital Wing is cold and uncomfortable. Madam Pomfrey won't stop lecturing me about the evils of Quidditch, as if I had asked for the bludger to chase after me. My head is throbbing, and I can't fall asleep. And I haven't had one visitor.

I would've thought that Sirius, the reason that I am currently in the Hospital Wing with a concussion, would show his stupid, ugly face and apologize for injuring me, but apparently I would be wrong.

"UGH!" I yell to the empty Hospital Wing. "He is SO DEAD!"

"You wouldn't happen to be talking about me, would you?"

"_You,_" I say to Sirius in the most menacing voice I've ever used in my life.

Sirius has enough sense to stay far away from my bed.

"Evans, I'm _so _sorry. I really am."

"That bludger could've _killed _me! Did you think of that, Black?"

"Yes. That's why I slowed it down. It didn't hit you that hard!"

"When I get out of the Hospital Wing--"

"Before you threaten my life," Sirius says, bravely walking toward my bed, "you should know that James was sitting right here next to you all afternoon while you were passed out."

"Oh, that's right, use James to distract me, that's so very clever." I glare at Sirius menacingly. He raises his eyebrows. I cave. "He really was?"

Sirius laughs. "Yes. When he realized what was happening he pretty much tackled the Slytherin beater that was near him in order to get his bat, and then he chased after the bludger to try to knock it away from you. He didn't get there in time."

"Obviously," I say, rubbing my head.

"But he stayed and made sure that you were okay."

"Well where is he now?" I look around stupidly, as if I though he was hiding in a corner and was going to come out and shout "BOO!" at any moment.

Sirius notices this and laughs again. "He's upstairs in the Common Room. He's embarrassed; he thinks you're still angry with him."

I groan. "_I can't take much more of this_."

**________________________________________________________________________**

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've had other things on my mind and I forgot to update!**

**One of the other things on my mind: my new fanfic! I've started writing my next fic, another Lily and James fic! I've written the first two chapters, and am almost done writing the third, but I'm a bit stuck. I don't exactly know what's going to happen next, so it might be a while before I post it, but I will let you guys know when I will post it!**

**There's only two more chapters left of this fic! I'll just let you guys know now, I think that the next chapter is sort of terrible; definitely not my best work. It's kind of a transitional chapter. If you guys have noticed, Lily's friend Mary has sort of fallen off the face of the Earth, and the next chapter will bring about her return. Be on the lookout for an update though, it'll be coming soon!**

**As always, thanks for reading, and remember that I love reviews! ****J**


	9. One Last Plan

**I am not JK Rowling, but it would be awesome if I was.**

________________________________________________________________________

When I got back from the Hospital Wing, I discovered many things.

First: in my absence, James and Sirius had stopped fighting. When I enter the Common Room I see them sitting together in a corner with Remus and Peter, making jokes and laughing, as if nothing had passed between them.

I don't know what I'm expecting. That Sirius will abandon his real friends and come to sit with me? I know I shouldn't expect that, but I'm still a bit disappointed when all I get is a wave.

This brings me to my second discovery: all these weeks that I've been hanging out with Sirius, I've been neglecting my own best friend.

I scan the Common Room and find Mary and Alice sitting in the comfy chairs by the fire. I make my way toward them.

"Uh…hi."

Both Mary and Alice stare at me without saying a word.

"I'll just…go," Alice says awkwardly, and when she leaves her seat, I sit down.

"Mary, I--"

"Are you dating Sirius Black?" She asks abruptly, and her face glows with concern.

That was not what I was expecting. Yelling, telling me what I horrible friend I am, I would expect _that_. This girly gossip, though? Not so much.

"Wha-- NO! Ew, how could you even think that? He's just my friend."

"Good," she says, visibly relaxing.

"Wait…you like Sirius?"

"Yes," she says, grinning a bit.

"Come on," I say, leaving my chair and pulling her by the arm.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you down to Madam Pomfrey-- you've obviously had some head trauma."

She laughs. "Leave me alone. You're the one who got hit by a bludger, remember?"

My face falls. "Sirius."

"What? What does he have to do with it?"

My third discovery: you should always confide in your friends.

I sigh. Time to come clean.

"Mary, listen. I feel really bad about pretty much ignoring you for weeks."

Her face darkens, but she doesn't say anything, so I continue.

"But after I yelled at Potter, I knew I had to fix what I'd done. And I went to Sirius for help."

"Because you're in love with James."

"Woah." I blanch. "How did you know that?"

"Lils, it's kind of obvious. I knew that you were in love with him before _you _even knew that you were in love with him."

"Well why didn't anyone think to let me know? It could've saved me a lot of trouble."

She laughs. "What kind of trouble?"

And so I told her everything. And you know what she did? She laughed.

"That's hilarious."

"I hope you and Sirius have a nice life together, because you're perfect for each other," I say coldly, getting up from my chair.

"Come on, Lily, you have to admit that it was kind of funny."

I sit back down. "Oh yeah, I got hit in the head with a bludger, that's so amusing."

"Well maybe that part wasn't so funny. But the fact that you were really stupid enough to go along with all of his ridiculous schemes? Classic." She breaks into a fit of giggles again.

"Hey, Evans."

I spin around.

"Hey, look Mary! It's Sirius!."

Mary sobers up, and gives me a dirty look before saying, "I'll meet you upstairs."

Sirius sits in Mary's vacated chair.

"I have a plan," Sirius says as soon as he's sitting.

"Don't you always?"

"Pretty much," he says, grinning. "You're going to Slughorn's party on Saturday, right?"

"This plan is going to take place at Slughorn's party?"

"Yes. There'll be a lot of people there, so it's likely that no one will notice you stealing a bit of Felix Felicis."

"No, I'm not stealing anything."

"Evans--"

"I'm Head Girl! I can't be stealing things from teachers!"

"You're Slughorn's favorite student! If anyone can get away with this, it's you."

I don't say anything. Sirius seems to take this as a 'yes.'

"Now, I happen to know that Slughorn has a little bottle of Felix Felicis in the middle drawer of his file cabinet."

"How do you--"

"It doesn't matter how I know, I just do. Now, the key for that file cabinet is on a hook behind his desk. I'll create a diversion so that you can get out into the classroom, and I'll stand guard outside of the door. It should be very simple. When you've got the potion, you've got you're key to James. Easy as pie."

"Easy as pie," I repeat, but somehow I don't really think it'll be as simple as Sirius seems to think it'll be.

**________________________________________________________________________**

**I know, it was very short and kind of suckish. It was a transitional chapter. I considered putting it in with the next chapter, but the thought of having 9 chapters instead of a perfect 10 would annoy the crap out of me.**

**And I'm very sorry that it's taken me so long to update, but things are crazy around here. I promise you the next chapter will be up sometime later this week.**

**And speaking of the next chapter- it's the last one! But don't worry, my next fanfiction will be up very soon!**

**Thanks for reading guys, and I hope that you'll review! ****J **


	10. Getting James

**I know I said I would update sooner, but things got all crazy on Thursday when I had to re-write my college admissions essay (which, incidentally, is about how _Harry Potter_ has influenced my life), and then there was pep-rally and homecoming, so updating completely slipped my mind until this morning.**

**I feel I should warn you: some of the lines in this chapter are extremely cheesy. I apologize in advance for that.**

**As I'm sure you know, I am not JKR and I don't own the characters!**

**Enjoy the last chapter!**

________________________________________________________________________

"LILY!"

"Oh my God," I yell, as Mary knocks me over. "What?"

"Sirius," she says, panting and out of breath from running at me like a lunatic, "asked me to go with him to Slughorn's party!"

"And I suppose you said you would go," I say, trying to regain my balance.

"Yes!"

"That's really cool, Mary!"

"I know! This is going to be such a great night!" She says, smiling from ear to ear. "I'm going with Sirius, and after you get the Felix Felicis you and James will be together!"

My heart skips a beat. I had been too busy worrying about the actual act of obtaining the Felix Felicis to focus on what would happen _after._

I smile just as wide as Mary. "Let's go get ready!"

________________________________________________________________________

"Wow, Evans. You actually look nice!"

I look at Mary. "Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?"

But Mary isn't listening. She's too busy giggling and looking at Sirius, who sweeps into a low bow.

"Are you serious?"

He looks at me. "Good job Evans, you've finally learned my first name!" **(A/N Cheesy, I know, but I couldn't resist! :D)**

"You're not funny," I snap.

"_I _thought it was funny," Mary says, and Sirius grins at her. "Shall we go in?"

I smooth out my silver dress robes (silver was the only color I could find that didn't clash with my hair), and follow Sirius and Mary, who are walking arm in arm, into Slughorn's office.

I look around, and my nerves spike.

"Sirius, he's got about twenty filing cabinets. Which one am I supposed to break into?"

Sirius' face falls.

"I can't remember."

"You WHAT?"

"I really don't know. How could I have forgotten?"

I don't say anything, I just stare at him in shock.

"You'll just have to open them all until you find it, I suppose."

"You said 'easy as pie!'"

"Well I didn't mean to forget which one it was!"

We have to stop bickering when Slughorn approaches and introduces me to some famous person that I don't really care about at all.

I look towards Sirius, to see if he'll try to save me from this slow torture, and I find that he's way ahead of me.

He mouths the word "Run," and I do just that as there's a huge explosion from his end of the room, and everyone looks around to see what the commotion is about.

I run in the direction of the explosion, and hurtle through the open door to Slughorn's classroom, closing the door behind me.

I lean against the closed door, my eyes closed, breathing heavily. And then I hear a loud BOOM from a few feet away from me. I open my eyes.

One of Sirius' fireworks has escaped into Slughorn's classroom. And I'm stuck inside with it.

_This can't be good._

I look around wildly for Slughorn's desk. Sirius had said that they key to the file cabinet would be behind it, and I wasn't going back into the party without that key.

I run toward the desk, and, instead of walking around the desk like a normal person would, I try to jump over it. And fail.

As I pull myself up off the floor, I hear another loud BOOM as the firework cracks again. This time, I use sense, and I walk around the desk, grab the key, and run toward the door.

I pull at the doorknob. The door doesn't open.

My panic increases as the fireworks get closer and closer to me, and the door still won't open.

I bang on the door.

"SIRIUS!" I scream. "SIRIUS OPEN THE DOOR!" My yells echo around the empty classroom as I keep pounding on the door, using my full weight to bang into it…

BOOM!

I scream as the firework explodes again, so close to me that it singes my elaborately curled hair.

"SIRIUS!" The door springs open as I'm about to bang into it again, and I topple into Sirius' arms. "Oh, thank God." I sigh, and Sirius sets me on my feet and quickly closes the door to the classroom.

"Are you okay?" he asks me, his face filled with concern.

"I'm fine."

"Did you get the key?" he asks anxiously. I hold up the key to show him. "Good."

"I'm going to need a diversion!" I cry, and Sirius gives me the thumbs up. I hurry over to the nearest file cabinet and try to put the key into the slot of the middle one. It doesn't fit. I move over to the next one, and the next one…

"OUCH!" I look around. The guests of the party are all scrambling around, trying to get away from the nifflers that Sirius has let loose. I look down, and there's a niffler sniffing at my ankle bracelet. "Shoo! Get away!" The niffler doesn't listen. Instead, he bites me again. "OW, you son of a--"

_Rip._

"You've got to be kidding me." I make a motion as if to kick at the niffler that just ripped my dress robes, and he runs away, as does the one that bit me. "Keep moving, keep moving," I mutter to myself, moving onto the next file cabinet.

"Lily, stop." I jump about a foot in the air.

"Mary, you scared the shi--"

"Stop. The nifflers are gone, someone's going to spot you. Sirius is trying to think up another diversion; he thought he'd only need the two. But until he does you're going to have to stop so you don't get caught."

I follow Mary across the room to where Sirius stands, looking extremely contemplative.

"What happened to your dress robes?"

"Freaking nifflers."

"I've got it!"

Mary and I look at Sirius.

"What?" she asks him.

He doesn't answer her directly. Instead, he says, "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen!" loudly, and he climbs up onto a table. All eyes turn to him, which I guess is what he was aiming for. Mary pushes me toward the file cabinet, and I walk toward them as Sirius loudly says "I would like to sing you all a song by one of my favorite singers, Celestina Warbeck!"

As Sirius sings "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love," I look at the row of file cabinets.

_Which one did I leave off at?_

"Lily!"

I spin around, and groan.

"Not now, Severus."

"What are you doing? Stealing from Professor Slughorn? For _him?" _Severus gestures toward Sirius, who's still singing.

"Oh, come and stir my cauldron…"

"It's none of your business what I do! Leave me alone!"

"You're Head Girl! You can't be stealing from teachers!"

"Would you just SHUT UP? We both know you don't care who I steal from. You're just upset that I'm friends with Black now. And you know what? He's a better friend to me than you ever were!"

This is not entirely true, seeing as Severus never jinxed a bludger to chase after me, but I need him to get away from me so I can get to the Felix Felicis.

I got the reaction I was looking for…almost. Severus looks very taken aback, and hurt, but he doesn't get away from me.

"Come on, Lily." Severus grabs me by the arm, and attempts to pull me away from the file cabinets.

Something comes over me, a kind of crazy desperation. The rationality I usually have has gone away, and the only thing I have left is a desire to get the Felix Felicis. And so, I swing back the arm that Severus isn't holding on to, and punch him square in the jaw.

"Woah!"

I look up. James is standing there, looking from me to Severus, who is clutching his face, in amazement.

"Way to throw a punch, Evans!" he says, a wide smile on his face.

"OH, NO YOU DON'T!" Severus had taken out his wand, and is pointing it at James when Sirius stops singing and runs forward, pulling out his own wand, and aiming a hex at Severus before he gets to hex James.

Suddenly, hexes were flying all over the place, and the party guests were again shuffling around to either get out of the way or to go break up the fight. In all the commotion, I'm thrown this way and that, and in the scuffle I drop the key to the file cabinet.

Like an idiot, I try to search the floor for the key, and I keep getting bumped into, stepped on, and shoved around.

I stop looking for the key. I'm not going to find it.

I've failed.

Inexplicably, tears spring to my eyes, and I want nothing more than to get out of this room.

I walk away from the party and down the Corridor, tears still running down my cheeks. I don't know where I'm going, I just know I need to get away from here.

"Hey, Evans!" I hear someone call from close behind me.

I sit down on the stone steps nearest me, and wipe my eyes. I don't want James to see me cry.

He sits down next to me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I say, although a few tears escape and betray me.

"Tell me what's wrong," he says, and though his voice is gentle, I can tell that it's not a request, it's a command.

I look up at him, and he wipes the tears from my face. The instant our eyes meet, I realize that I've been acting extremely dim. All those weeks that Sirius and I sat planning, all those times that I've embarrassed myself, they were all unnecessary. If I had been smart, I would've just gone to James and told him how I feel.

No more plans. No more embarrassment. No more making James jealous, or wearing skimpy clothes, or putting myself in danger, or stealing Felix Felicis. I've just got to tell the truth, like I should've done in the first place.

"Nothing's wrong," I say, and it's the truth. I don't need Felix Felicis to get James to open up. He'd followed me out here when he saw I was upset, hadn't he? "It's just--" I can't seem to get the words out. It's not, after all, that easy to tell someone that you love them. "James, I--"

"I love you too, Evans."

I blanch. "Wha-- how did you know that's what I was going to say?"

"Well for one thing, you called me James," he grins. "For another, Sirius told me."

"I'll kill him," I mutter. James just laughs. "But if he told you," I say, confused, "why did he have me do all that stuff?"

"Well," James says, looking extremely uncomfortable, "he was a bit angry with you."

"So he made me embarrass myself on countless occasions for revenge?" James nods. "And you knew? You didn't stop him?"

"Well it was funny, at first anyway. I went along with it just because… well I don't really know why. Sirius usually does what he wants anyway though, so I figured, why not? But then, at the Quidditch practice, he tried to kiss you," James' face darkens, "so I told him that enough was enough. But he didn't listen."

"That's what you guys fought about?"

"Yeah. I told him to leave you alone, but he didn't. So I hexed him."

"You hexed Sirius?"

"Yup."

James hexed his best friend. For me!

"But it still didn't work," I point out.

"Well, that was while you were at detention. He didn't do anything to you again until he came up with the plan to get the Felix Felicis."

Clearly James doesn't know about Sirius jinxing the bludger to chase after me. I decide it's unwise to tell him.

"Well, if you knew the whole time, then why did he have me try to steal the Felix Felicis? I obviously wouldn't need it to talk to you, and I didn't seem to embarrass myself, or get myself into trouble, so why'd he make me do it?"

"He needed it for a prank he's trying to pull."

"Oh, God. What kind of prank?"

James grins. "Let's just say it involves Mr. Filch, a cactus, a tube of toothpaste, a hippogriff, and a whole lot of dungbombs."

"Sirius _would _need a lot of luck to pull this prank off."

James laughs. "I think he's going to be a bit miffed with you for not getting the Felix Felicis."

"I would've confiscated it from him anyway when I knew what it was really for."

James laughs again. "He's probably not going to attempt this prank without it, but I still think someone should give him detention for his terrible singing."

I laugh. "He sure does know how to think on his feet."

"You have no idea," James laughs.

After we abuse Sirius' singing for a bit, we break off into a comfortable silence.

Suddenly, James breaks the silence.

"That was some punch!"

"I don't know what came over me; it just seemed like it would be a good idea."

"You have no idea, I can't wait to use some 'you got hit by a girl' jokes on him."

"Oh, don't!"

James looks at me. "Okay."

I'm stunned. "Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Look, James, I'm really sorry about all that stuff I said to you--"

"Oh, please. It's not a big deal."

"But you seemed so--"

"Please, Lily. It would take much more than that for me to give up on you."

As I look up at James, I know that he's serious, that he'll forget all about this mess, and that we can put all of this behind us and start anew.

"I love you, Lily."

"I love you too, James."

I put my arms around James' neck, and pull his head toward mine, and our lips meet in a warm kiss.

I feel my lips curve into a smile. I had done it! I had finally gotten James.

________________________________________________________________________

**Ugh, that last line makes me want to vomit. So cheesy!**

**Well there it is, the end of the story! I hope you all enjoyed it!**

**I am currently writing a new fanfic, another James and Lily fic…but with a twist! I don't know when I'll be putting it up, as I mentioned before things are really crazy around here at the moment. However, anyone who is really interested in this next story should Private Message me, and I'll notify you (via private message, most likely) as to when I'm planning on putting this fic up, and what it will be called so you can keep an eye out.**

**Well, thank you so much for reading and reviewing, and hopefully you'll keep a lookout for my next fanfiction!**


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